The air quality in Reno and the surrounding region have been affected by the smoke blowing its direction from the Yosemite Rim Fire.
As Reno’s great August smoke-out continues, one of the area’s top atmospheric scientists warns that people should take seriously the danger of breathing the dirty air.
But Alan Gertler of the Desert Research Institute also said folks should view the situation in the proper perspective. Decades ago, air pollution at levels now being experienced in Reno was common in some American cities and remains common today in cities around the world — places such as Beijing, Shanghai and Cairo.
“This is what L.A. used to be like in the ’70s all the time,” said Gertler, vice president of research and chief science officer at the Desert Research Institute.
“These levels are pretty severe for the U.S., but this is a good day for a lot of the cities in the world,” Gertler said. “That says a lot about how far we’ve come.”
The problem affecting the air of Reno-Sparks, Carson City, Lake Tahoe and other places across the region comes not from smog-belching traffic and heavy industry but from smoke blowing into the area from major wildfires. Over recent days, the biggest smoke-producer is a massive blaze burning in and around Yosemite National Park. Earlier in the month, unhealthy levels of smoke blew into the Truckee Meadows from a different fire west of Tahoe.
After welcome winds brought a brief reprieve Sunday — clearing enough smoke for air quality to improve to the moderate range — conditions deteriorated again Monday. By late in the morning, Reno’s air quality index measured 160, well into the range in which the air is considered unhealthy for everybody. By contrast, particulate pollution in Beijing topped out over the previous 24 hours at 185.
Yosemite’s Rim Fire is 20% contained after burning 250 square miles. At least 23 structures have been destroyed and 4,500 are threatened, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. More than 3,750 firefighters were battling the blaze, aided by 15 helicopters and 460 fire engines. With forecasts calling for winds to continue blowing toward Reno from the southwest, the smoke is expected to remain.
“As long as we keep any kind of southerly flow to it, it’s going to funnel smoke into here,” said Dawn Johnson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Reno.
Health officials are urging people — particularly children, the elderly and anyone suffering from heart or respiratory disease — to minimize contact with smoke and avoid strenuous outdoor activity.
Levels of fine particulates measured in Reno’s air in recent days are roughly twice acceptable standards, and those tiniest particles are the ones most dangerous to human health, Gertler said.
“It knocks days off your life. If you look at the exposure, you have a number of populations that are at risk,” Gertler said. “It really is a pretty bad-case scenario for us.”
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